Tag: avocado

Because I’m pretty sure after eating this Avocado Pizza with Bacon, Cilantro and Lime you’re never going to want to go back to plain ol’ cheese or pepperoni again.

I mean, we all know what a bona fide hit avocado toast has become, so it would only make sense that avocado pizza follows suit. The mere fact that this recipe includes bacon means it’s perfectly acceptable for breakfast, and why not just call it a day by throwing a fried egg on top? You’re welcome for that little nugget of inspiration.

In real world news, still no sign of baby. We “lived it up” this weekend as a family of two with a visit to the Harbor & Seafood Festival, a stop at the local pumpkin patch, a movie and some dinner out. We’re trying to enjoy as much time together as we can before our little girl gets here!

On the NorCal wildfire front, I’m relieved to see that they’re getting things somewhat under control (comparatively speaking) and was uplifted to see some of my favorite local businesses reopening over the past few days. That’s not to say there’s still not a long way for Napa and Sonoma to go as far as recovery is concerned, but let’s hope the worst is behind us and things only go up from here.

As I’ve been whipping through recipe development this past week, I’ve certainly not taken it for granted. Often, when I’m pulling something out of the oven or stirring something on the stovetop, I find myself thinking about how, for my food-loving friends in Wine Country, whipping up a home-cooked meal is the last thing on their mind right now. I wish I could make a big feast and somehow get it up to them, but for now all I can do is continue to make delicious things and record them so that hopefully my friends can enjoy making some of my creations very soon.

This Avocado Pizza with Bacon, Cilantro and Lime is one I know will be a huge hit with ANYONE who is blessed with the gene that makes you love cilantro (I hear that’s a thing? Sorry to all my cilantro-haters out there.) The combination of all four flavors – avocado, bacon, cilantro and lime – complimented by my go-to overnight pizza crust recipe and just a light dusting of cheese is seriously a party in your mouth.

It seems like a bit of a cheater’s pizza, because really the only toppings you put on before baking are some olive oil, garlic and cheese, but the real flavor arrives as soon as you put on those finishing touches of creamy avocado, crispy cooked bacon, tart lime juice and fresh-chopped cilantro. And if you’re like me and are usually too lazy to reheat anything when enjoying it for leftovers, Avocado Pizza with Bacon, Cilantro and Lime is going to be your new best friend. Promise.

As I mentioned, I used my favorite from-scratch pizza dough recipe – Jim Lahey’s Overnight Pizza Dough – but you can easily use a premade dough or crust. I will say that, even though the words “overnight” and “from-scratch” may seem a bit intimidating, Jim Lahey’s recipe is SUPER easy and in my opinion well worth the little bit of extra planning it requires to mix up a batch of the dough the night before you plan on making the pizza.

I don’t know about you, but pizza is a weekly go-to dinner in our household, and having a homemade version makes it infinitely better. I love that you can add as much (or as little) of a topping as you want, and you can opt for healthier options like fresh vegetables, meats and herbs. Plus, it all comes together pretty quickly once you have your pie rolled out and ready to go in the oven!

A traditional pizza dough is dressed up with fresh avocado, crispy bacon, a squeeze of lime juice and a sprinkle of fresh cilantro. The perfect flavor combo!

Course: Main Course

Servings: 4servings

Author: CaliGirl Cooking

Ingredients

1batchof Jim Lahey's Overnight Pizza Dough (see notes)

2tablespoonsolive oil

2clovesgarlic, peeled and minced

1 1/2cupsshredded Italian blend cheese

4piecescooked bacon, chopped

1/2of a large avocado, sliced

Juice of 1/2 a lime

1/2cupchopped fresh cilantro

Instructions

Prepare pizza dough according to recipe directions and roll out onto a large pizza or baking sheet dusted with cornmeal (or sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.)

Preheat oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit.

Brush olive oil evenly over pizza dough and sprinkle on minced garlic and cheese. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, until the crust is lightly golden and the cheese has melted.

Remove pizza from oven and let cool slightly (5 minutes or so) before adding the other toppings. Sprinkle the chopped bacon evenly over the pizza, followed by the avocado. Squeeze on the lime juice and finish with the chopped cilantro.

I hope you all love breakfast as much as I do, because this week is all about the breakfast recipes, and I’m not going to feel bad about it. Technically, this Avocado Toast with Grilled Halloumi and Honey could be breakfast OR lunch, or even a snack, so there’s that. And it is anything but basic, so don’t stop scrolling because this is yet ANOTHER recipe for the OG avocado toast. You are going to make this version with grilled halloumi and honey and you’re going to LOVE it.

First and foremost, have you even heard of halloumi cheese? If so, than you know that it is an amazing, firm, salty Greek cheese that is incredibly versatile – it can be grilled, sautéed, shredded, you name it! And if this is your first time hearing about halloumi cheese, prepare for your mind to be blown.

I was first introduced to the stuff at a little Mediterranean bar and grill in downtown Napa called Tarla. My friend and I were trying it out for the first time, so naturally we asked the waiter what dishes he recommended. He promptly told us we had to get the Saganaki, and boy, am I so glad we did! Not ten minutes later, we had a little cast iron dish of flaming halloumi cheese in front of us, drizzled with truffle honey, accompanied by Chardonnay-infused Turkish apricots and raisins, and served with little toasts to scoop up all the goodness. I was immediately in heaven.

But, that all-too-common fear of the unknown took over and, although I knew you could find halloumi cheese at certain gourmet grocers and specialty stores, it took me these five or so years since I tasted that little bite of heaven to finally buck up and buy some of the cheese to experiment with. This Avocado Toast with Grilled Halloumi and Honey was my first foray into the halloumi world and, let me tell you, I’m never going back.

I touched on it already, but one of the greatest things about halloumi is that, when sliced and grilled or sautéed, it will actually hold its shape and not melt into an oozy puddle. It gets these gorgeous brown grill marks and picks up the flavor of whatever you cook it in.

Because there were already a ton of flavors I planned on loading on this toast, I kept my grilling method simple and cooked the halloumi up in a healthy pat of butter in my cast iron skillet. This gave it the most gorgeous slight char (anyone else here a huge fan of slightly golden-browned cheese?) and the cheese literally soaked up all of that delicious, buttery flavor.

I’m getting ahead of myself, though, because as all good toast does, this Avocado Toast with Grilled Halloumi and Honey starts with high-quality bread. You could essentially use any type of bread for this, but I highly recommend something that’s a slight step up from your average sliced sandwich bread. I used a local bakery’s whole wheat levain and it was absolutely outstanding. Plus, that way you can hand-cut the slices as thick as you want!

So after finding your fave bread and giving it a good toast (either in the toaster or under the broiler in your oven,) we lather on a healthy dose of smashed avocado, then sprinkle on some fresh lemon juice. This acidity will help cut through the richness that both the avocado and the cheese bring to this dish.

The next layer of this ultimate open-faced sammy is the grilled halloumi. Don’t be shy about this, yes, it’s cheese, but it’s sooo worth the little indulgence. We then drizzle on a little honey to bring some sweetness and sprinkle on some chili flakes for spice, the perfect sweet-salty-spicy tri-fecta.

Some might say this Avocado Toast with Grilled Halloumi and Honey is TOO simple of a dish, but sometimes that’s just what we need, especially on a busy Monday. And once you taste this bad boy, you’re going to realize the explosion of flavor is anything but simple.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat on the stove. Add the butter and let it melt. Swirl the pan to coat, then add the sliced halloumi. You can do this in a couple of batches if all of the cheese doesn’t fit at once. Grill the halloumi a couple of minutes on each side, until golden brown. Remove to a plate while you prepare the rest of the toast.

Spread half of the avocado over each slice of toast, smashing down with a fork if necessary. Squeeze the lemon juice evenly over the avocado, being sure not to lose any seeds.

Place the grilled halloumi slices over each piece of toast. You may have one or two slices extra, eat these or save them for later use.

Finish off the toast by drizzling the honey evenly over both pieces of toast and sprinkling on red pepper flakes, based on your spice tolerance. Enjoy immediately.

A Korean-inspired guacamole featuring fresh kimchi to give some subtle spice and bacon as a secret salty ingredient. It’s bursting with flavor!

Quick, easy, salty and spicy. That’s how I roll these days.

It’s been quite the week and I feel like I’ve been going non-stop. I never realized how much “stuff” there is to do around the house (especially as a party of one) and it seems like I’ve not been able to stop, sit and relax in, oh, about 6.5 days. It’s times like these that I turn to quick and easy deliciousness that I know is going to make my tastebuds (and stomach) sing with joy. Enter Kimchi Bacon Guacamole!

Okay, but seriously, I think it was about Wednesday last week when I realized that FOOTBALL SEASON KICKED OFF LAST SUNDAY! It’s one of my favorite times of the year, mostly because Football Sunday is a food-centric event where you get to sit on your bum and eat all the things and drink beer (or bubbles, which happen to be my preference, keepin’ it classy.) So, naturally, I immediately started thinking about what recipe I could whip up that my gimpy husband and I could sit and enjoy while watching the Niners take on the Texans. Guacamole seemed like a natural selection (and a healthy one too!)

But, being the food blogger that I am, I couldn’t settle with just plain ol’ guac. I wanted to jazz it up a bit. You already know that I’m a fan of kimchi (a.k.a Korean pickled cabbage for all you newbies) and I figured it had been a hot minute since I’d made some. I love this recipe that I found on Food & Wine because it comes pretty dang close to legit Korean kimchi, but in half the time! Seriously, you should give it a try. Anywho, I decided to whip up a batch and then throw some in to my guac.

And, it being the weekend and all, I just happened to have a little extra thick cut slab bacon on hand…Now, we can’t let that go to waste, can we? I thought it would be the perfect salty addition to the pickled, spiciness that the kimchi lent to the recipe and, what do you know? Kimchi Bacon Guacamole was born.

GUYS. Let’s be serious for a minute. This –ish is soooo frickin’ good! Like, why haven’t I thought of this before? I could choose to blame the fact that I hardly ever bought avocados when I lived in Hawaii because they were so dang expensive, but really, I can easily get a hold of (or make my own) kimchi now that I’m back on the mainland, so I should have at least figured this out 6 years ago when I moved back.

But the past is the past and there’s no turning back. All that matters now is that I have this magical creation called Kimchi Bacon Guacamole at my fingertips and today, you lucky readers, I’m sharing the recipe with you!

It’s hardly a hard-core recipe, so you have no excuse not to make this ASAP (or next weekend when NFL preseason continues…and might I mention it would also be an amazing Olympics-watching snack?)

Here’s the deal: My favorite kimchi recipe from Food & Wine comes together in about an hour (maybe slightly more than that, but that’s still amaze-balls compared to most other kimchi recipes), and the rest comes together in less than 15 minutes! (If you have some leftover cooked bacon on hand…But if you’re veg, you can totally leave it out and this guacamole will still be soooo good.)

We make a traditional guacamole (with garlic, cilantro, tomato, jalapeno, and of course avocado) and then simply chop up our fancy additions (bacon and kimchi) and mix it all together. Easy as that! Now what do you say, are you ready for some Kimchi Bacon Guacamole in your life?

I am so excited to share this Mediterranean Smashed Avocado Toast with you today because it’s SUPER easy and the tastiest of tasty…It’s one of those dishes where you take a bite and think, “How can something so simple be so good?” This dish is basically the poster child for my mantra of consuming as many high quality, unprocessed whole foods as possible. When you use only the best for the 5 ingredients involved (yep, you heard that right, just 5 – unless you’re going to make me count the salt), this toast will feel indulgent while it’s really an incredibly healthy treat.

But before we get to that, how was everyone’s weekend? Our June gloom never lifted on Saturday, which made it a bit of a greyish day for my “Bridal Shower 2.0,” but there was lots of both indoor and outdoor space at my sister-in-law’s house so everyone was able to gather round comfortably and we had a blast. I’ll be posting some photos to Instagram in the next couple of weeks so be sure you’re following me to see all of the fun!

That shower marked the end of our “pre-wedding” events so now we just have the big day ahead of us! Yes, we are officially 47 days away. I can hardly believe it’s so close already. We’ll ease into it comfortably though, since we have three weddings to attend before ours. This last month and a half is going to fly by insanely quickly!

All the more reason for us to have some super simple and healthy recipes like this Mediterranean Smashed Avocado Toast to have in our back pocket. So I have to admit, I modeled this recipe after a dish that one of my absolute favorite bakery cafés makes here in Santa Barbara. Our Daily Bread is the “corner bakery” right down the road from our house, and it’s the cutest little spot to grab a basic yet delicious bite to eat, coffee or fresh loaf of bread. I love little gems like these. We go there fairly often when we don’t want a HUGE breakfast but still want something slightly substantial, or if we have just a little time before work on a weekday. Their Smashed Avocado toast is spot on, and you’ll get a fairly good idea of what all it entails when you read through this recipe.

So let’s get to that recipe! As I mentioned, this Mediterranean Smashed Avocado Toast has five, just FIVE ingredients (plus a gimme.) All you need is:

The best loaf of sourdough bread you can find, preferably fresh and local, ‘cuz that’s how we roll.

A perfectly ripe avocado

One big, juicy, red tomato

Extra-virgin olive oil (again, extra points if it’s local!)

Dukkah – This is an Egyptian condiment made up of a blend of herbs, nuts and spices. Lucky for us, we don’t have to search far and wide for it – Amazon to the rescue!

That’s it! Five main ingredients, no cooking involved (unless you count toasting your bread) and you have an incredibly delicious, nutritious breakfast, lunch or snack (it could even pass as dinner on a super-hectic day!) to enjoy in less than 10 minutes. Let’s do it!

So, do me a favor and don’t skip on past this recipe because, well, we all know you have YOUR favorite version of avocado toast. Trust me on this one, you do not want to miss the gloriousness that is Mediterranean Smashed Avocado Toast. It is sooooo good!

Start becoming friends with your local avocado and tomato farmers now, because once you make this once you’re going to be hitting them up for the goods all throughout the summer. You’ve been warned!

We made it through the gluttony of the weekend and I’m sure you’re as eager as I am to get your eating back on track and get more clean foods and vegetables into our systems. This Ahi Poke Salad with Macadamia Nuts is the perfect solution.

I’ve been a big fan of the Hawaiian delicacy known as poke ever since I learned that, hey, raw fish is actually delicious and I was surrounded by it at every grocery store I shopped at when I lived in Hawaii. When you’re living in a state that has temperatures over 80 degrees almost every day of the year, you learn (very quickly) to love healthy foods that require no cooking over any type of heat source.

Even though poke has been on hand as a convenience food in Hawaii for many years, it has only just started making its way onto the mainland. I say it’s about time! There are “poke bowl” shops popping up all over and it’s now just as common to find poke on the menu at your favorite seafood restaurant as it is to find ceviche (at least in California, anyway.) But have no fear! Even if the poke craze hasn’t landed in your city yet, you can jump ahead of the trend and make this super-easy, incredibly healthy recipe on your own.

Speaking of healthy dishes you can make on your own, I’m excited to announce that I’ve partnered with my friends Tobias and Christel at The Fit Blog to start bringing you quick, easy, healthy meals on a more regular basis on their site. Tobias and Christel are certified personal trainers with a passion for bringing the healthy lifestyle to everyone, no matter your age, size or activity level. I love their message because they are all about finding the balanced lifestyle that is right for YOU, without prescribing any strict, crazy diet regimens. Basically, they speak my language!

If you’ve been following me for any period of time now, you’ll know that I am all about that balanced living. I believe that everyone is different, but that you can be healthy and happy without having to cut a ton of food groups out of your diet/give something up completely (unless you’re deathly allergic, that is.) I believe that it’s all about moderation and that, if you focus on primarily eating whole, unprocessed foods, and getting in consistent physical activity, the rest of your health will fall into place.

From the moment I started talking with Tobias and Christel, I knew that we would be a great fit for each other. They, too, champion an extremely balanced lifestyle, and the fact that they don’t have a ton of specific criteria for what they would/wouldn’t like to see in the recipes I contribute (as long as they’re nicely balanced) won me over right away.

That being said, this Ahi Poke Salad with Macadamia Nuts is my first recipe contribution to The Fit Blog, and I’m so excited to share it with you today as well. It’s incredibly easy to make, comes together in under 30 minutes, requires no cooking and is also super healthy and chock full of protein and Omega-3 fatty acids. It’s the perfect dish to fuel you up for (or help you recover from) a great workout. It’s filling yet won’t leave you feeling heavy. Plus, you can serve it in an avocado! How cute is that?

Hi, I'm Robin! A passionate foodie, I love creating (mostly) balanced recipes while still allowing plenty of room for life’s little indulgences. I believe that with a focus on whole, minimally processed foods, there's no need for severe diets or restrictions. Thanks for reading my blog….I look forward to getting to know you!